Iraq's still rife with antisemitism

So much, in fact, that the family of the Iraqi contestant in the recent Miss Universe paegeant had to flee because of her friendship with the Israeli contestant:

Miss Iraq, Sarah Idan, became friendly with fellow contestant Adar Gandelsman, the Israeli contestant in the Miss Universe International Beauty Pageant held in Las Vegas last month. They even posted pictures together on Instagram, wishing “love and peace” to all – but the reaction of Idan’s fellow countrymen has been anything but peaceful.

So many people posted comments that cursed her for this act that the 27-year-old beauty queen felt she had to defend herself, noting in another post that the picture only showed her desire for peace and “does not signal support for the government of Israel and does not mean I agree or accept its policies in the Arab homeland.” And she apologized to anyone who considered it “harmful to the Palestinian cause.” But, courageously, she did not remove the photo from her account.

Idan’s participation in the swimsuit competition of the event also aroused great anger, with her family actually leaving Baghdad temporarily after being threatened by their more conservative relatives after that preliminary round of the pageant. However, Miss Israel told Israeli TV Wednesday that Idan’s relatives have now been forced to leave Iraq because of the anger over their joint picture, as well as ones of her modeling in a bikini.

“The two of those things together caused a mess for her back home where people made threats against her and her family that if she didn’t return home and take down the photos, they would remove her (Miss Iraq) title, that they would kill her,” Adar Gandelsman said.

Because of this, she's practically living in the USA now, where she's studying as a musician. I do think she should've avoided bringing up the "palestinian cause" mainly because it won't mollify the monsters. And this reaction compounds the failure of the Bush/Obama administrations to change the cultural attitudes in Iraq even after Saddam Hussein was deposed, making the war in Iraq meaningless. If cultural/ideological beliefs aren't changed, then the problem only persists.